One or more aspects of the present invention relate, in general, to data processing systems, and in particular, to managing virtual network ports through a network.
Network port names, also known as world wide port names (WWPNs), and associated network port identifiers (N_Port IDs), are part of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Fibre Channel Standard. Virtualization of Fibre Channel (FC) network ports, also known as N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), allows sharing of physical FC ports by multiple operating systems by letting each operating system have its own world wide port names. An operating system may receive access to logical units (LUN) through a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) target port in a storage area network (SAN) by using one or more WWPNs owned by the operating system. This capability architecturally allows multiple operating systems to share a physical FC port. One or multiple FC ports may be hosted on a single FC adapter. Multiple operating systems may share a server that has firmware and software capabilities to provide SCSI input/output (I/O) services to each operating system by virtualizing physical hardware.
US 2009/0307330 A1, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discloses a method and system of migrating a client partition from one server to another server. The client partition is migrated while the client partition is running without I/O failures, loss of service or decreased network security.
In US 2009/0307330 A1, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, a computer implemented method is provided for migrating a client between servers, the method comprising generating a pair of WWPNs for a virtual Fibre Channel adapter, the virtual Fibre Channel adapter being associated with a client. The server is foreseen to support the migration of WWPNs among the different systems, whereas the user is faced with managing the individual virtual Fibre Channel adapters.